I've thought about cities like this before, in the context of space colonies underground in a single long tunnel. And it's just almost always bad due to lack of redundancy.
The better solution, in the same line of thinking (hehe) is to set down two parallel lines, and have periodic connections. A ladder shape, as it were. In the space colony sense, it would allow breaches in any individual section to only take out that section, and always have a reroute option.
Basically, they're building a space colony without any of the logic that goes with it. So let them build their monument in the desert. It'll amuse archeologists some day.
This is obviously a bad idea, but part of me is really hoping that somehow it works and proves everyone wrong. I guess I just like rooting for under dogs